


solid ground

by ocheeva



Category: Mass Effect
Genre: F/M, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-01-30
Updated: 2014-01-30
Packaged: 2018-01-10 14:24:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 374
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1160729
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ocheeva/pseuds/ocheeva
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The galaxy might be safe, but Shepard is restless and no matter how much Kaidan wants her to stay in one place, for once out of gunfire and blood splattered across her armour, he knows he can't keep her and knows he'll follow her. Flashfic.</p>
            </blockquote>





	solid ground

She wakes up with her skin sweat-coated and sticking to the sheets and metallic screams in her mind and the ghost of a warm thumb against her jaw. He stirs and looks at her and whispers _Shepard_ because that is who she needs to be on nights like this - not for the galaxy, now, but for herself.

"Go back to sleep", she says.

"I just need some fresh air", she lies and he allows her to slip out of bed, out of the bedroom, out into faintly illuminated darkness and a chilly breeze that curls around her bare legs. She feels sad in a way that makes her think about the sound of her breath and how her bones won’t crack as easily as they did when she first met him.

"Hey", he says. "You’ve been out here for a while."

She looks up and the sky is a little brighter, the clouds a little more scattered and he swallows at the fire burning behind the sadness in her unbelievably green eyes.

"Guess I have", she replies and moves to go back in but he stops her, turns her back to him so that they look out over the city together. It’s early enough in the morning, late enough at night, that people start waking up and moving between their homes and their workplaces and he doesn’t have to tell her that she’s the reason they’re able to do that at all. He wants to, though, wants to tell her that she’s done enough and that she can rest now but that’s not who she is and that’s why he loves her.

"I’ll go with you", he murmurs as her fingers find his where they’re entangled over her abdomen.

"I didn’t say anything." There’s a smile in her voice and he wishes it didn’t make his heart grow heavy.

"No, but I know you. I know what you need and I know that you can’t find it here." He tries to smile around how bad he feels for this woman who will never stop thinking she needs to do more than the impossible, how sad he is that she is only really _her_ when she’s moving between stars rather than gazing up at them.


End file.
